Jeju Island, situated off the southern coast of Korean peninsula, is one of my favourite travel destinations for its hiking trails, beautiful scenery and good food.
However the not so charming fact is that there are no direct flights from Singapore to Jeju. So planning a trip to Jeju invariably involves making careful choices as flight times and costs vary significantly.
The usual way is to transit in Seoul (GMP) and connect a domestic flight to Jeju (CJU). Other options with good choices of connecting flights are via Shanghai or Hong Kong.
Planning My Third Trip to Jeju
I was tasked with planning another trip to Jeju this Oct 2018 with a group of ex-schoolmates, 10 pax including myself.
On previous trips to Jeju I flew SQ to Seoul then connecting a domestic flight by Eastar Jet. But fares to Seoul on Singapore Airlines, which used to cost around SGD600 few years ago, have escalated over the last 2 years. Now return tickets cost upwards of SGD1000 at the time of writing. Including the connecting domestic fare the total comes close to SGD1200.
We weren’t prepared to pay that much so I did what most travellers do – search for cheaper fares using third party booking sites like Trip.com (formerly cTrip), Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Cheapoair and Cheaptickets.sg.
I prefer arriving in Jeju around midday and departing after lunch with less than 5 hours transit time. Fares on these sites ranged widely from SGD526 to SGD1288. From the list of options, China Eastern Airlines has the cheapest fare to Jeju with flight times that fit our criteria.
As I needed to secure 10 tickets I called China Eastern to make sure there are 10 seats available on all the flight legs. With that confirmation I made the booking online on China Eastern’s website at an average cost of SGD580 per pax inclusive of taxes.
Flight details:
Singapore (SIN) to Jeju (CJU) via Shanghai (PVG)
| Route | Flt No | Departure | Arrival | Flt Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SIN to PVG | MU544 | 0055 | 0620 | 5h25m |
| PVG to CJU | MU5059 | 0955 | 1230 | 1h35m |
Return flight Jeju (CJU) to Singapore (SIN)
| Route | Flt No | Departure | Arrival | Flt Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CJU to PVG | MU5060 | 1340 | 1410 | 1h35m |
| PVG to SIN | MU545 | 1630 | 2155 | 5h25m |
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